Kael'thas Sunstrider (tactics)
This article is about the in-game raid boss. For character biography and Warcraft III appearances, see Kael'thas Sunstrider. For the character's appearance in the Magister's Terrace instance, see Kael'thas Sunstrider (Sunwell tactics). Kael'thas Sunstrider is the fourth and final boss encounter of the Eye in Tempest Keep. His council is composed of four advisors: Thaladred the Darkener, Master Engineer Telonicus, Grand Astromancer Capernian and Lord Sanguinar. He also spawns seven powerful legendary items which you have to equip in order to defeat him. Usable only during the encounter, reseting the encounter, wiping, or releasing to the Graveyard will desummon the weapons. General information *Level: ?? (Boss - Level 73) *Type: Humanoid (Blood Elf) Abilities ;Thaladred the Darkener *Gaze – Fixes aggro to a specific person in raid. Thaladred emotes the target he's gazing at ("Thaladred sets his gaze on ...") and proceeds to chase them down. *Knockback – Knocks a player (the one he's gazing at) away from himself, dealing 4-5k damage. ;Lord Sanguinar *Fear – 30 yard AoE fear centered on himself, 1.5 second cast. ;Grand Astromancer Capernian * Fireball – 6-7k fire damage, cast on target holding aggro. * Conflagration – Cast on a random raid member within 30 yards of Capernian; all players within ~5 yards of the target player are affected by Conflagrate: disoriented, and dealing 600-900 damage to themselves and all nearby players for 10 seconds. * Arcane Explosion – 4.5k Arcane damage and a knockback; cast if there are targets Capernian's melee range. ;Master Engineer Telonicus * Bomb – 7-9k fire damage in a small radius, thrown at the target holding aggro. * Remote Toy – places the Remote Toy debuff on a random raid member. The debuff lasts 60 seconds, and will periodically stun the affected player for 4 seconds. ;Kael'thas Sunstrider *Fireball – ~10-15k fire damage after Infernal Protection mitigation. Can (and should) be interrupted. *Mind Control – Mind controls a few people in the raid. *Arcane Disruption – 1750-2250 Arcane damage and a 10 second disorient. *Flamestrike – (115625-134375 initial damage, ~3k per second ) – Spell Detail level to High in order to see these, Similar to Void Zones they do damage per second you stand in them. Will give a few seconds to run out of the Flame Strike. Does not spawn a phoenix *Summon Phoenix – The graphic to this summon is identical to the Flamestrike, however, in less than a second, the Phoenix is born and causes a small knockback to anyone in the area of effect. Will turn into a Phoenix Egg when they die, and this egg will resurrect the phoenix if not killed within roughly 15 seconds. Strategy for this is located below. *Shock Barrier - Absorbs 80,000 damage, immunity to interupts, lasts 10 seconds. He casts this immediately before the 3 consectutive Pyroblasts, and also when he casts gravity lapse (a couple times during gravity lapse actually). *Pyroblast – Base spell damage is 45k-55k fire damage, interruptible (he casts Shock barrier immediately before casting 3 of these). Immediately after the 3rd pyroblast (whether he gets it off or not), he will cast Arcane Disruption. See below strategy for dealing with this ability. *Gravity Lapse – All members of raid are teleported to him and shot into the air, everyone can “Swim” and needs to get away from each other. At the end of this ability the raid will fall to the ground and take fall damage. Note: If you go too near to the ground during Gravity Lapse, you will get punted high up, potentially increasing the chance you'll die from fall damage. *Nether Beam – 1850-2150 Arcane damage, jumps to nearby players. Randomly targetted while players are under the effects of Gravity Lapse. Damage doubles as it chains (similar to C'Thun eye beam attack). *Nether Vapor – Appear as small black clouds floating around in the air with you. If touched they add a stacking debuff that reduces your max health by 10% each time, reducing your health by upto 90%. Strategy Phase 1: Introducing the Advisors The raid will square off against Kael'thas' advisors one at a time; new advisors enter combat as their immediate predecessor is killed. Individually, the advisors pose no serious threat to the raid, and since there is no time limit for the completion of this phase, it is advised that the raid focuses on survival through this phase, as well as proper positioning of the advisor's corpses for Phase 3. The advisors are engaged in the following order: * Thaladred the Darkener focuses ("sets his gaze on") a single raid member, following that member around the room; he should simply be kited by the person he is gazing at, while ranged DPS brings down his HP. Avoid staying close to Thaladred - he occasionally swings at targets other than his focus target, and may focus on you, dramatically reducing the time you have to get away; it is unlikely that anyone will survive more than two hits. * Lord Sanguinar is a simple tank and spank boss; be wary of his fear ability prior to 2.3 - it may sometimes be recast faster than Berserker Rage cooldown; post 2.3, fear does not reset aggro and should not be an issue. * Grand Astromancer Capernian should be tanked by two casters (preferably warlocks, due to Searing Pain and Soul Link) - since Conflagration is a temporary threat reset. Due to Capernian's Arcane Explosion, this is a ranged-only fight. * Master Engineer Telonicus' primary attack is a short-radius AoE bomb centered on his current aggro target; the fight is slightly complicated by the Remote Toy debuff, which lasts 1 minute and will periodically stun the afflicted person (similar to the Bronze affliction done by Chrommagus). If a phase 2 weapons tank gets this debuff, stop DPS until it's about to wear off before going to phase 2. Phase 2 begins after Telonicus is dead; it is important that none of the weapon tanks are affected by the Remote Toy debuff. Phase 2: The Weapons After the advisors have been defeated individually, Kael'thas summons his arsenal of weapons; which remain lootable for 60 seconds after their death providing the raid with legendary weapons for the rest of the fight (the weapons are multi-drop but unique; one can theoretically pick up one copy of all of them). ; ~280,000 HP Does low damage. Heals itself and friendly targets. Must be interrupted. ; ~230,000 HP Does a frequent Whirlwind that will 1-shot any non-tanks. Must be tanked slightly away from the other weapons, but still in AoE range. ; ~210,000 HP Hits normal but attacks very fast. Has a Thrash ability (similar to Prince Malchezzar's phase 2 ability) that grants it two extra attacks. ; ~210,000 HP Occasionally does Multi-Shot. Must be tanked by a ranged DPS (drops agro if any melee (including pets) attack it). Preferably tanked by hunter facing it away from the raid to avoid Multi-Shot hitting the raid. ; ~290,000 HP Does high damage. Has a "shield spike"-like ability that when activated can reflect a lot of damage to a fast attacking melee DPSer. Also has much higher HP and armor than the other weapons. ; ~170,000 HP Has Frostbolt and Frost Nova. Occasionally does a Frost Nova, runs to ~10-15 yard range and Frostbolts. Does relatively low and slow melee damage (relative to the other harder hitting weapons). ; ~290,000 HP Hits very hard. It should be noted that this boss is unique, and strategies for phases 2-5 can vary greatly between guilds. What works for your guild or in 1 strategy might not work at all for another. It is best to read multiple strategies on this boss, and as a raid leader, figure out which is the best for your guild. AoE Strat- It may be desirable for ranged DPS to kill the staff first (providing the people affected by Remote Toy with immunity to the stun effect, and improving AoE DPS later in this phase), then proceed to AoE the remaining weapons, which can be positioned in so that they'd all be hit by AoE. Melee should focus on killing Mace (preventing it from healing other weapons) and daggers (boosting melee DPS). Single Targeting Strat- If you choose not to do the AoE strat, put all ranged DPS on the bow first (as it has the most potential for causing things to go wrong) and put melee on the healing mace, interrupting the heals. The bow should die quickly, allowing the hunter(s) to use the bow and ammo to help the melee in their targets. Staff is the next target to die (as it has lower HP than the others), and then the dagger and sword. With either strat, it is perfectly fine to have the shield and axe alive in phase 3. The axe can die whenever you want, as it is not likely to be used by many members of the raid (in likeliness, just enhancement shaman(s) and maybe the hunter(s)), as it has no significant purpose or proc unlike the dagger or mace. However, the shield needs to be dead before phase 4 so that the MT has it for tanking Kael'Thas. Both can be killed slowly with the damage that occurs in phase 2 and consistently dotting them in phase 3. Phase 3 begins exactly two minutes after Phase 2; the raid group will have to deal with any weapons that may remain alive by that time. At 15 seconds until phase 3, all tanks and allocated healers should be moving to their places (if not already doing this earlier), which means that the staff and mace must be dead and looted at this time. At 5 seconds until phase 3, tanks and healers need to be in their places ready for phase 3 to begin. Phase 3: The Advisors, Reloaded Kael'thas resurrects all of his advisors, who engage the raid along with any weapons still alive from Phase 2. After cleaning up any remaining weapons. Thaladred is obviously the biggest single threat to the raid and must be killed first. Have all ranged DPS attack him and burn him down. 1 rogue shiv'ing him with a dagger in the OH maybe used to put the +25% magic damage buff on him, however, if you choose to do this, make sure that person is very aware when thaladred switches targets, because it very quickly could be a dead raid player; anticipating and moving out just before the switch is highly recommended. Since it isn't wise to have more than 1 melee DPS on thaladred, the rest of the melee should be on Lord Sanguinar. After Thaladred is dead, all DPS should transition to Lord Sanguinar. This is a great time to pop all CDs including heroism/bloodlust (with a 10min CD on heroism/bloodlust, popping it now means that if Kael'Thas MC's a shaman, he wont beable to use it in phase 4 and buff himself with it). After Sanguinar is dead, casters move on to Capernican and melee onto Telonicus. A good meter of your progress on this encounter is if you have only Telonicus alive when Kael'Thas engages you as phase 4 begins, you are very close to a smooth kill. If you are just starting on Capernican or she isn't at least at 50% health, you are very far behind and need to step up in multiple areas, most likely is killing Thaladred faster (which mostly has to do with controlling him as he gazes targets and DPS is done to him correctly). Phase 4 begins exactly two minutes after Phase 3; the raid group will have to deal with any advisors that may remain alive by that time in addition to Kael'thas himself; that should typically only be Capernian. Phase 4: Taking matters into one's own hands Kael'thas enters the fight himself; spamming Fireball on the tank in between spawning Phoenixes, casting flame strikes, mind controlling people and using Shock Barrier. The transition from phase 3 to 4 is the most difficult of the fight, and arguably all of Burning Crusade raiding content yet. Fireball should be interrupted most of the time. The only time it should even hit the MT is when a Phoenix egg spawns or MC occurs. All melees should have Infinity Blade equipped and use low damage skills (e.g. Hamstring, Shiv) on Mind Controlled people to dispel it. The best CC to use on the MC'd players is sheeping them, as opposed to stunning them, because in all likeliness, one of the MC'd player has the staff equipped (and if they having been doing their job with the staff), is giving out the aura to make them immune to stuns. Kael'Thas will intermittently cast Flamestrike at someone's feet. It MUST be avoided at all costs by everyone in the raid as it will instantly kill any player in the raid when the cast finishes (about 5 seconds). Everyone should have Spell Details set to High to be able to see the glow on the ground. About 30-40 seconds into Phase 4, Kael will summon a Phoenix, which the summoning graphic is identical to the Flamestrike ability, however, in less than a second, the Phoenix is born and causes a small knockback to anyone in the "phoenix-flamestrike" area of effect; this causes no damage to the players. It should be tanked by a ranged DPSer who can kite it around until it dies or by another tank (warrior/druid/paladin) near Kael'Thas. The phoenix casts a hellfire ability that damages itself (5% HP) and others around it (2,500-3,500 fire damage post-Infernal Protection mitigation) every second, giving it a 20 second life span. Upon its death, it will do a final "bang" that does a huge knockback to anyone in melee range and then becomes a Phoenix egg. This egg has about 70k HP and absolutely must killed, otherwise in about 15 seconds it will resurrect as a Phoenix again. At about 60 seconds into Phase 4, Keal will cast Shock Barrier immediately followed by 3 successive Pyroblasts. Kael's pyroblast has a base spell damage is 45k-55k fire damage, however, with a warrior in defensive stance, spec'd for imp defensive stance, and the Infernal Protection buff from the , the maximum possible top end damage is 23,265 fire damage, and as low as 19,035 fire damage. As a rule of thumb, prepare for the worst, always anticipate that your tank will be getting hit for 23.3k. One of the best ways to deal with the 3 successive pyroblasts is for the MT to take the brunt of the first blast (make sure the warrior is PW:S'd, and use a fire protection potion/nightmare seed rotation), use the legendary shield ability to absorb the 2nd pryoblast, and half way into the 3rd pyroblast, the shock barrier will have worn off and any spell interruption ability (kick, pummel, shield bash are the best choices) will interrupt the 3rd pyroblast. Eating the first pyroblast allows the healers to heal up the ~20k damage over 6-8 seconds (which is plenty of time for healers if you're fighting Kael). Immediately after the 3rd pyroblast (whether he gets it off or not), he will cast Arcane Disruption. Essentially, the 60 second rotation of events is 0sec->20sec(MC used, Arcane Disruption is likely as well)->30-40sec(Phoenix spawned)->40-50sec(likely another MC or Arcane Disruption)->60sec(Shock Barrier + 3 Pyroblasts)->after the 3rd pyroblast cast(Arcane Disruption) with Flamestrikes whenever he feels like it. Timing and control are what will get you through this phase. Phase 5 begins once Kael'Thas' health reaches 50% health. He will do a short cutscene and become invulnerable for a while. Deal with any remaining Phoenix spawns as per normal. Note: If you get really unlucky timing, it is possible (and has happened) that Kael'thas will reach 50% health just as he begins his triple pyroblast succession, and thus become invulnerable (and truly uninterruptible) while casting the 3 pyroblasts. It is extremly rare for this to happen, but just have your tank and healers aware at 50% just in case it happens. Phase 5: True Power Kael'Thas no longer casts Pyroblasts or Mind Controls, instead he gains the ability to cast Gravity Lapse, a 30 second raid-wide debuff that makes everyone float and swim in the air. He will still be casting flamestrikes and spawning the phoenix as well so make sure you have an off-tank to pick them up. The raid should spread out during Gravity Lapse to avoid Nether Beam chaining too many people. Also be sure to avoid getting near Kael'Thas as he has Nether Vapor, a ~10 yard AoE debuff that decreases maximum HP by 10% that lasts 1 minute (stacks up to 9 times). It is especially important that the MT has the presence of mind to move out and avoid getting this debuff. When Gravity Lapse is ending all aggro is reset so make sure you give your tank time to pick him back up(this is a great time to kill the pheonix and the egg that will be up). Make sure you are not too high up in the air or you might take a lot of fall damage. Mages should Counterspell his first Fireball after Gravity Lapse to bring him to the MT. He will cast his Shock Barrier consistently during the gravity lapse, and therefore trying to damage him during gravity lapse is pointless. During Gravity Lapse, the phoenixes go into an "evade" mode of sorts, they neither move toward anyone nor cast their hellfire, and their health does not change at all. At the end of gravity lapse, they will return to follow their target (highest agro, it doesnt change who), and continue their use of abilities. Long story short: They push the pause button when gravity lapse happens. As you are in the final phase of the fight, as with other encounters, this fight too has an enrage timer. However, unlike the "hard" enrage timers that Hydross, Leotheras, and such have, this is a "soft" enrage timer. After 15 minutes of looting your weapons, they disappear, you should be mindful of the time left on them as you get Kael'Thas below 25% HP. Don't be too worried tho, many guilds have killed him with their weapons despawning @ 2%, and repeat kills are far and away from the soft enrage timer, just be prepared to switch to your normal weapons if you're getting close to the soft enrage timer. Basically, when this soft enrage timer hits, there are only so many Arcane Disruptions you can handle before it kills your raid due to lack of healing going out while taking damage in the "unbreakable" confusion. Quotes Intro: * Energy. Power. My people are addicted to it. Their dependence made manifest after the Sunwell was destroyed. Welcome to the future...a pity you're too late to stop it. No one can stop me now. Selama ashal'anore. Advisor Introductions: Grand Astromancer Capernian * Capernian will see to it that your stay here is a short one. Master Engineer Telonicus * Well done. You have proven worthy to test your skills against my Master Engineer, Telonicus. Thaladred the Darkener * Let us see how your nerves hold up against the Darkener, Thaladred Lord Sanguinar * You have persevered against some of my best advisors. But none can withstand the might of the Bloodhammer. Behold, Lord Sanguinar. Summoning Weapons: * As you can see, I have many weapons in my arsenal. Resurrecting Advisors: * Perhaps I underestimated you. It would be unfair to make you fight all four Advisors at once, but...fair treatment was never shown to my people. I'm just returning the favor. Engaging combat (phase 4): * Alas, sometimes one must take matters into one's own hands. Balamore shanal! Mind Control: * Obey me. * Bow to my will. Summoning phoenix: * Anara'nel belore! * By the power of the sun! Enrage (phase 5): * I have not come this far to be stopped! The future I have planned will not be jeopardized! Now, you will taste true power! Casting Gravity Lapse: * Having trouble staying grounded? * Let us see how you fare when your world is turned upside down. Killing a player: * You will not prevail. * You gambled...and lost. Death: * For...Quel...thalas! Loot First kills Movies External links Category:Stubs/Strategy Category:Bosses Sunstrider